1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a competitive video game apparatus for playing a competitive video game, such as a combat game or a sports game, displayed on a display screen for a competitive match between two contestants or competitive characters which include at least one of a player character and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) character, a method of playing such a competitive video game, and a computer-readable recording medium which stores a control program for such a competitive video game.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Competitive video game systems play a competitive video game, such as a combat game or a sports game, displayed on a display screen for a competitive match between a player character that is manually controlled by the game player and a CPU character that is controlled by a video game system controller including a CPU based on a control program and control data.
When a combat game, for example, is played on a competitive video game system between a player character and a CPU character, the game player manually controls the player character with a manual controller in efforts to attack the CPU character on the display screen. The combat game is finished if the player character is damaged beyond a predetermined degree by kicks and punches from the CPU character or the game player fails to damage the CPU character beyond a predetermined degree within a given period of time.
If the combating level of the CPU character is much higher than the manual control level of the game player, then the player character controlled by the game player tends to lose quickly, making the game player lose interest in the combat game. On the other hand, if the combating level of the CPU character is much lower than the manual control level of the game player, then the player character controlled by the game player tends to win easily without thrilling combat actions, making the game player feel uninterested in the combat game or causing the game player to continue the combat game too long for the competitive video game system to profit sufficiently per use.
If the combating level of the CPU character is almost the same as the manual control level of the game player, then the game player may control the player character to defeat the CPU character with highly thrilling combat actions, and hence may feel satisfied. In addition, the combat game will not continue too long, and the competitive video game system will provide sufficiently high profitability per use. However, since different game players have widely different manual control levels, it is impossible to equalize the combating level of the CPU character to the manual control levels of all game players who may come to play the competitive video game system.
One solution is to enable the game player to select one of certain combating levels for the CPU character depending on the manual control level of the game player. However, it is impracticable to prepare as many combating levels for the CPU character as the number of combating levels of possible game players. Even if sufficiently many combating levels were available for the CPU character, it would require the game player to become accustomed to the game system in order to select an appropriate combating level for the CPU character. Furthermore, if the manual control level of the game player is very high, then the game player is likely to win easily even when the game player has chosen a high combating level for the CPU character. At any rate, it is quite difficult to match up the combating level for the CPU character with the manual control level of the game player.
The CPU character is controlled by the video game system controller based on the control program and the control data. The video game system controller is programmed to control the CPU character to make attacking and guarding actions in certain predetermined patterns depending on how the combat game proceeds. Therefore, when the game player is well familiarized with the combat game, the game player is able to foresee a next attacking or guarding action or a combination of next attacking and guarding actions in each stage of the combat game. As a result, the experienced game player will be bored with the combat game, and eventually lose interest in the combat game.